Wednesday, April 29, 2015

I don't know what makes you an expert on what "good" Black men care about. Men who are men, not punks, do care about our younger brothers and sisters--however misguided they are. Listen, buddy. I grew up in the projects of East Baltimore myself--a region certainly not better of than the West side ghetto in which Freddy lived, an in which live many of those angry youngsters who resorted to that unorganized confrontation. But I work everyday. I've a Ph.D., teach in a university, have never been to jail except for CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, and I was involved in those mass protests this past Saturday. I would have been at Freddy's funeral had I not been dealing with my students (some of whom I excused from class so that they could be at the funeral and console Freddy family). Even when I was coming up---and I'm roughly contemporary with Barack Obama---conditions were not as bad in the ghetto as they are now. And I don't blame our children (whom you, Nikki, Bmore's jive mayor, and Obama call thugs), but the city government, the corporate elites and institutional racism for the wreckage. I blame the police for their incessant harassment and brutality against my people. And I can assure that I and my family in Baltimore have all had experiences with the incompetence, brutality and stupidity of Bmore's fascist cops. Yes, I do give a damn about what happens to my younger sisters and brothers. For me this is a reminder that WE need to get our asses and gear and resume responsibilities to our own community. I don't blame the children as much as I blame the racist capitalist system which creates oppressive conditions, and also the "good" black men an women who won't commit themselves to shid, but then self-righteously think then can sit in judgment of the youth and the less privileged. Frankly, I don't blame the youngsters for being rebellious and angry. In their own misguided way they're showing more manhood and womanhood than passive bourgeois Negroes who do nothing, except aid in the oppression of their own people. I try tell the young---as my more conscious elders (veterans of the 1960s) taught me: It is RIGHT to rebel. It is right and sane to be angry as injustice. But there are effective forms of rebellions and ineffective. At least you kids have enough sense of self to rebel, but this is not the best way to do this. You must become organized, you must politically educate yourselves, and you must unite---and not just briefly in a revolt such as this." There's a clear line here: Either you're on the side of the oppressed, or on the side of the system, the oppressor. Everything else is BS. And for those "good" Black men (and women) who don't give a damn about the so-called "thugs," they thereby prove to me that they're NEITHER good nor really even men.

-Savant

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it is way past the point of useless talk about good cops and bad cops, or reform of the police. The police departments nationwide must be DISMANTLED, and replaced by a community force REQUIRED to LIVE in the community in which they work, and whose leadership is subject to appointment and recall democratic elections of the people. Trying to reform the corrupt, racist and fascistic (increasingly militarized) police is as pointless as trying to "reform" corporate capitalism, institutional racism and militarism. He who opts for this sets himself on a fool's errand. No, these corrupt and tyrannical structures must be done away with and replaced with democratic institutions that serve the people. The rest is BS. And to rectify the ills of our community we must have MASSIVE mobilization of popular energies to transforms fundamentally this bankrupt social order, the structural injustices and inequalities which underlie our social ills. History has proven that the more you raise the social consciousness of the people, the community, the more you also shrink the scale of dysfunctional and self-destructive conduct.

-Savant

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It's interesting that whites like Yim---who thinks he can lecture me on what a "good" Black man cares about---also thinks he know more about how cops behave toward Blacks than we do. What's remarkable is that there has been TONS of research (much of it by WHITES) which clearly show the persistence of police brutality against the Black community. There are even indications that UARMED Blacks have a greater chance of being shot than ARMED whites who explicitly threaten the police. (By the way, you may be able to find an article in AlterNet.org about whites who confronted police armed and were not killed. I forget the title, but will share it when I see it again). Even Black professionals are not exempt from dangers of police abuse. This has been reported by AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, the ACLU and even UN commissions on Racism an on Human Rights. Whites like Yim know nothing about all this, or dismiss it as liberal propaganda, but they readily swallow whatever they can find to reinforce their notions of black "pathology " or "criminality. ". There are some whites who are so far gone that it's hopeless trying to bring them back to reality--to break them out of their secluding bubbles of illusion. Instead of trying to tell me what "good" black men do or don't care about he should be trying to become a good person himself. And if he can tell me what good black men care about, maybe I can gie him a clue to what a good white man (or woman_) is like. For a few hundred of them were with us this past Saturday, including one who carried a sign reading "Blacks Lives Matter even MORE than White Supremacy." Now I wonder why that, and several days of our PEACEFUL protests,were worthy of less attention by the media than the misguided actions of some of our kids this past Monday? (

-Savant

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That is not an unreasonable fear. East Baltimore was virtually untouched. Neither the inner city sections of East Baltimore where I grew up, nor the more middle class sections of North east has seen disturbances. Of course, I'd be surprised if something had erupted in Northeast Bmore with all those professionals.

The rebellion in Baltimore is decades in the making. When we search the truth, we see that the victims of this decades long neoliberal policies (from both Republicans and Democrats) are not thugs. The real thugs are the political establishment who allowed austerity, police brutality, deindustrialization, social inequality, discrimination, and other evils to fester in Baltimore and in other locations globally. When people rebelled, these hypocrites lecture us about obeying the law and being nonviolent when society is not using nonviolence in drone attacks overseas and in their other imperial tactics. The rebellion was an expression of the hurt and the pain by human beings who have economically exploited by the oligarchy. Also, the brutality of police brutality in Baltimore and in so many other cities across America represents an epidemic not a rising crisis. The mayor of Baltimore is a Sister named Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Sister Stephanie Rawlings-Blake did the right thing to express sympathy with the family of Freddie Gray. Yet, we all know that she and other police authorities made mistakes during the Monday response to the rebellion. During Tuesday, the situation in Baltimore massively improved. Now, we see National Guard troops and militarized police in Baltimore since Baltimore is in an emergency. Yet, the emergency in Baltimore didn’t began in 2015. It started decades ago when many authorities refuse to give adequate housing, health care, jobs with a living wage, quality education, and other services to the black and poor residents of Baltimore. We not only have to defeat racism, but classism too. To call hurting people “thugs” is too simplistic, it’s reactionary (to her credit, the mayor of Baltimore has apologized for calling people thugs), and it doesn’t solve the problem. The violence of the oppressed is different from the violence of the oppressor. There is no justification for the burning of the CVS store, for the burning of a senior center, and for innocent property being harmed. Yet, human life is more important than property. The pattern of slandering protesters, the occupation of communities, and the growing income inequality must end. I wouldn’t surprised if some of the people using violence against innocent property are agent provocateurs. Also, the protest movement for social change will continue. The real thugs are those cops who kill innocent unarmed human beings. The real thugs are those who express drone strikes killing innocent civilians throughout the Earth in Yemen, etc. The upper class in Baltimore has massive privilege while the poor are treated as a domestic colony. For long centuries, we have been the victims of colonialism, slavery, and other forms of oppression. America itself was founded as a settler state at the expense of African suffering and Native American extermination. The reactionaries lecture about pulling up from our bootstraps, but they advocate socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. Many residents of Baltimore have protested peacefully, cleaned streets, had celebrations, and want a real change. Yet, some in the mainstream media refuse to show the vast majority of the residents of Baltimore expressing love, solidarity, peace, and a call to justice. The peaceful protesters in Baltimore should be commended for their dedicated to truth and justice. The unjust murder of Freddie Gray should wake anyone up that police brutality is not only real (as the city had to pay victims millions of dollars for restitution over police brutality), but we have the right to resist. Resisting doesn’t just mean nonviolent resistance narrowly. It also includes self-defense and civil disobedience. Resistance is a key part of revolutionary struggle. We are in solidarity with all of the freedom loving people of Baltimore.

He deserves a round of applause for his statements on this issue. Jesse Williams is a genius. The American Revolution has been glorified by many whites, but that revolution existed as a product of riots, insurrection, and theft of lands by the colonists. The Mexican-American war included riots. The police riot of 1968 (outside of the Democratic Convention meeting in Chicago) has been supported by reactionaries. Reactionary war policies then and now include massive war crimes. Yet, these evil actions have been supported by nefarious people, but evil people want to condemn all black people for the rebellion in Baltimore. The epidemic of police brutality has been ignored by so many even in our generation. There are double standards in dealing with this issue. Rioting is not representative of blackness or the black collective. The 1968 Kerner Commission displays in strong detail about why incidents in Baltimore, etc. take place. The massive police occupation, police terrorism, poverty, deindustrialization, and other evils play a huge role in the oppression of the people of Baltimore. To assume that a minority of people destroying property is representative of the protest movement is an outright slander. I commend people like Jesse and others who are speaking truth to power. Well, the naysayers can't refute Jesse's words. They are too accurate and they covered all of the bases. Also, there was the riot in the Northeast by mostly whites in New Hampshire during the Pumpkin Festival (back in 2014). The mainstream media didn't call the rioters "savages" or "thugs" in a high level. Some just called it just a mistake done by a few bad people.

This is certainly great news. Hundreds of human beings in Nigeria being rescued should be celebrated. There is a long way to go obviously. The situation in Nigeria is complex. There must be an addressing of income inequality in Nigeria (as the rich have been made economically prosperous via oil resources and other material resources like cobalt, but the masses of the poor suffer greatly). Civil liberties must be protected as Buhari during the 1980's violated the human rights of Nigerians. There must be more religious reconciliation between Christians, Muslims, and animists. Boko Haram is an evil, counterrevolutionary group and Africom has imperial designs too. We all want more people to be saved and we wholeheartedly desire Nigeria to reach its highest potential. I sympathize with the Baltimore mother’s fear, anger, and hurt at the situation. She is right to say that her son should not be killed by the police. I don’t agree with her slapping her son like that in public though. She should have responded in a better way. Yet, I understand where she is coming from. We need our families to grow and we want fascist police terrorism to end. Another thought came about in my mind on this issue too. In American society, there is the obsession with brute force, and brutality. When we study our history, we see that our ancestors suffered unspeakable pain and injury by white terrorists. Our ancestors were whipped and mistreated. You know where I'm going with this. If our ancestors being slapped and whipped by racists were wrong back then, then slapping a young teenager is wrong too. The mother and the son are going through great pain. They are hurting. The mother is emotional over the injustices found in Baltimore. In retrospect, the mother should of responded better. We take out our frustrations at the system via positive activism. We don't hurt each other physically or emotionally. We must be reminded about what life is all about. Life is not about being brutal and vulgar towards each other as black people. Life is about being just, fair, strong, compassionate, and real. When we are compassionate and strong, then the Spirit of the Lord is with us.

It is great for Viola Davis to take on this role. Harriet Tubman was a heroine in more ways than one. She freed hundreds of black slaves and she worked to defeat the evil Confederacy during the Civil War too. Harriet Tubman was crucial in the progressive human rights movement. Throughout her life, Harriet Tubman taught people about strength, determination, and the sacrosanct value of human freedom. Congratulations to Sister Viola Davis. The hypocritical Western imperialists lecture us on "nonviolence" and "following the law," yet they are not nonviolent with their drone strikes and their imperialism overseas (like in Libya when they allowed real terrorists to killed black Libyan men, women, and children). So, we know how the game is played. I heard of this story (of the sheriff's words) before too. First, who is he to criticize the term African-American. There is nothing wrong with black people calling themselves African American. He or the sheriff uses the same weak arguments in trying to ignore the real issue. The real issue is that we have a massive epidemic of police brutality and bad policies in our criminal injustice system. Just because a President is black doesn't mean that all of racism is extinguished in society. We have massive racism in America. It has been shown by how many black people have been sentenced unfairly, about how many people have been discriminated against in jobs, etc. Racism is shown at how racist people have beaten, and even killed black people in our generation. Also, many black people reject profanity and other evil actions.
There is no massive public outrage at many whites being involved in numerous crimes. When a white person does drug trafficking, serial killing, etc. many folks don't say that this white person has embraced a "thug culture." People say that these individuals are evil and they must be punished. So, the sheriff is stirring up racism and he is a disgrace. Black culture is diverse and it is beautiful. Crime rates in the black community have declined since 1970. Since 1992, black teenage pregnancy rates have declined. Therefore, we have a long way to go, but all black people are not social nihilists. The vast majority of black people aren't murderers; most of us aren't rapists, etc. I have noticed that sheriff (and people like him) refuses to micro-analyze other groups of people. They are just obsessed with stereotyping us and they minimize the pain and the oppression that black people go through. That is why we must fulfill our own expectations and not fulfill the expectations of the theocratic, retrograde, and evil views of that Sheriff. Black people will move forward and establish real solutions.

Poverty is a complex issue in society. Many people in our community once were middle class or rich class and became poor by unwise decisions, greed, and economic mismanagement. Yet, other people are poor by no fault of their own. These people also have become poor by being laid off, economic manipulation by Wall Street banks, a natural disaster, etc. Therefore, we should not justify anti-frugal behavior while realizing that the poor need support, compassion, and inspiration for them to achieve their own social, economic, and political empowerment. Freedom deals with social, political, and economic freedom as the elders legitimately fought for back then and what we are fighting for today in 2015. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with developing savings, retirements, etc. Many Americans save their money. Also, we as black people should develop long term saving and investment strategies short term and especially long term (so, our black descendants won’t have to deal with what we deal with. We want our resources to be sent to our future generations). Jobs should include a living wage, fair benefits, and real dignity. We should work in jobs, but not let jobs work us so to speak. There is nothing wrong with ownership, but we use ownership to help our people excluding greedy capitalist exploitation. Some in our community are messing up and making errors. There is no justification for anyone of any color to do evil consciously. Yet, our problems should never be used as a means for others to falsely stereotype us or scapegoat us for the evils in the world. Likewise, there are social, economic, and political oppression sent by the oligarchy against black people that can’t be ignored nor minimized. We should use our power (since we have over 1 trillion dollars in spending power per year) effectively to handle the issues of poverty, education, health care, etc. I don’t believe in painting the black community in a broad brush. Some black people get it and some don’t. We have a long way to go. The crimes of the super wealthy ought to be condemned. It was the super wealthy (via Wall Street banks, etc.) who caused the largest transfer of wealth in human history, which has caused massive social inequality in the USA alone. It is some (not all) of the black middle class and some (not all) of the black rich who escaped from the black poor and sought to promote a false sense of security (many of them have scapegoated the black poor collectively in a nefarious, classist fashion) instead of forming great solidarity with their poor Brothers and their poor Sisters. The system of white supremacy is nefarious, but it is not omnipotent. Therefore, we have the power to do something about our issues. Investments are needed in our communities. We have to realize that black pain is real. People are hurting and people need compassion and justice. We have to embrace real priorities which deal with children receiving a fair education, the sick having adequate universal health care, and police occupation & police terrorism being gone. These priorities relate to social and economic justice which I support 100 percent.

I was involved in those mass protests on Saturday that the media claims degenerated into riots. That is incorrect. Thousands of us converged on Memorial Plaza, in front of City Hall. A small number detached themselves from the main body of us, went down to Camden Yards where a baseball game was going on, to present their protest there. Some of them--not all--some became involved in violent conflicts with the police, trashing police cars and throwing rocks. Today, which was the day of Freddy Gray's funeral, the family requested that mass protests and demonstrations cease. They did. We honored the request and organized no demos. But AFTER the funeral some angry black youths who were leaving their high schools did get involved in violent conflicts with the police, and later some looting took place. The media misled the public by saying that "protestors " attacked cops and property. That is simply false. Police have also said that gangs have teamed up against the police. In fact, Baltimore doesn't even have large gangs like those in LA or Chicago. And the few we have (mostly imported) are too small and too conflictual with each other to form some massive united front such as the paranoid racist cops imagine. As for those of us who ARE protestors, our activities will continue. We will have a mass meeting tomorrow in the area where Freddy lived. There will be meetings on May 16. The "Million Moms march" on Washington is planned for May 9. And there are all kinds of civil rights, black nationalist, and left formations planning many activities. Rioting is not part of the plan of the real protestors.. The spontaneous violence of angry youth is another matter which we somehow have to get control of. Their energies must be shifted in a more positive direction. As Huey Newton once wrote regarding the riots of the 1960s, they "are handling the resistance incorrectly." We must ORGANIZE to struggle effectively.

-Savant

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I live here in Baltimore. I've seen some of the incidents involving conflicts between young Blacks and the police. Mainly spontaneous. But I've seen no indications of any gangs teaming up on the police as paranoid cops would have us believe. In fact, Baltimore does not even have large scale gangs such as you find in L.A. or Chicago. What did happen Saturday was that a few people detached themselves from the main body of our demonstration (of about 2000--3000) went down to Camden Yards during the baseball game to protest police violence. Some of them (not all) did engage in confrontation with the cops smashing police vehicles. But today was the day of Freddy Gray's funeral. Fredericka (his sisters) requested on behalf of the family that all mass protests cease today. We honored her requests--we, that is, who are actually involved in ORGANIZED protests and demonstrations. But after the funeral some Blacks students leaving their high schools got involved in physical confrontations with the police, despite the pleas of the Gray family to cease and desist. It has mostly happened in West Baltimore, the part of the city where the family of Freddy Gray lives. It has not engulfed the whole city. And it is not the "protestors " who are involved in this, regardless of what police and media might want us to believe

-Savant

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Concernant les "emeutes " a Baltimore, J'ai vous ecrite in your private email. I sent it also to Harrisson, Blondegirl, Ekdesiladki (separately), Soulbrotherian, and my Sioux sister NotsoDivine. I was PRESENT at the mass demonstration on Saturday which the media described as having degenerated into a riot. It began assembling in the vicinity of the Gilmore Projects in Sandtown, a black inner city West Baltimore community in which Freddy Gray lived. I had attended a meeting concerning academic freedom (and corporate attacks on freedom) held at Johns Hopkins University that morning. I left about 2p.m and went to Gilmor to be with my brothers and sisters in their protests against the latest instance of police terror. When our march began from Gilmore we were about 300, with maybe thirty whites, Asians, Latinos and even Middle Eastern folk there supporting us. As we marched through Bmore---which you know is about 65% black (since the wiite flight of the 60s & 70s), our numbers grew into the thousands. By the time we arrived a Memorial Plaza (in front of City Hall) our numbers were about 2000--3000, with several hundreds of whites, Latinos, Asians and others joining us. What happened later in the evening is that a small group detached itself from the main body and entered Camden Yards during a baseball game. Among them it appears that some (not all) eventually became engaged in a physical conflict with the police. Police cars were trashed and some cops were attacked by angry black youth (the main targets of police terror). But today was the day of Freddy Gray's funeral. Fredericka (sister of Freddy) requested on behalf of the family that all demonstrations be called off while they laid Freddy to rest. I decided to return to my classes and could not get away from campus in time for the funeral. I excused any of my students who wanted to be absent from class for that the funeral. At some point AFTER the funeral, when high school students left their schools, some became engaged once more in physical combat with the police. For the most part that's what has been happening as cops are pelted with rocks and bottles by angry Black youth. Some looting has also taken place. I do not uphold this kind of activity even though I fully understand it and share the anger of those youths. But the key to victory is ORGANIZED STRUGGLE not looting or throwing rocks at the pigs. The media claims now that "protestors " are attacking the police. That is nonsense, though some of us are angry enough to do so. What we who are engaged in organized protests have done today is to honor the Gray family's requests to hold off on demonstrations out of consideration for Freddy. His sister has also pleaded with angry youth to cease such violent actions. But we protestors have even abstained from NONVIOLENT action, let alone violent actions. Hence the media reports are misleading. As for your friends, certainly your black friends are as safe or unsafe as we always are. The angry adolescents won't attack us, but the police might. I doubt that they will even attack whites, except those in police uniform. And even Black cops do not escape the rage of our youth. I told you when I first met you in Bmore in 2005 that there is a lot of pent up anger in Black America. This is just one indication of what I meant.

-Savant

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What freddy the fool has to say is irrelevant. He doesn't know anything. Indeed, he'd have to be a political and cultural illiterate if he read my posts and interprets them to mean that "the Whiteman is to blame." I leave that kind of simplistic race analysis to simpletons who are as dumb as he, though not perhaps (like he) a white British racist or a white racist Negro. At any rate, the tide of history seems to be turning my way--along the path of progressive struggle. At that British buffoon is just along for the ride.

Monday, April 27, 2015

It is mainly white racists who claim that the problems of the Black community is of or own making. Of course, there are Black reactionaries who think likewise. What most Black people think--and quite correctly I believe---is that while most of the problems which we face are NOT of our own MAKING, they are still our burden of responsibility. We don't control the international drug traffic--certainly not CIA which brings much of the drugs into the country. But we do know that somehow we must rid ourselves of it. We didn't create mass employment or mass poverty, but somehow we must fight it. And crime, which ole Barros rightly notes to be an expression of the dysfunction bred by oppression, is a problem which MOST Black people recognize and try to combat in a number of ways--and often find themselves in conflict with the cops in doing so. Prior to the mass demonstrations in reply to cops killing of Freddy Gray, there were three hundred black men forming themselves into patrols to combat hoodlumism in the hood. Many of those SAME men are also involved in mass protests against fascistic police terrorism. As one brother (former resident of Lafayette projects) said to me yesterday at our mass demonstratin against fascist cop terror, "It's all the SAME struggle, man. The drugs, the cops, the crime--it's all the same thing, the same oppression we have to fight. You from this area, and you know what I mean." Indeed, I do understand....much better than freddy I assure you.

-Savant

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Freddy says that he hears whites complaining about police brutality. Duh, old news a___. There has always been police brutality against whites. Read about the history of the labor movement in America---or Europe, fool. No one is saying that racial oppression is the only thing happening. Anyone with the brains of a goose knows there class oppression and political oppression. Poor whites and progressive white activists sometimes find themselves on the wrong side of a cops billy club. The fact still remains that, as one study indicates, the PROPORTION of deadly use of police force happens 20 times more against Blacks than whites. Rarely does any systemmm of oppression target only one group. Even Hitler didn't kill ONLY Jews, but they were his MAIN target. Contemporary Europe oppresses other people besides Blacks or (indeed especially) North Africans. But only a stupid goose thinks that a Caucasian Frenchmen is as likely to face police violence as a Francophone Black or North African. (And I would not be surprised if terrorisme, a real problem, isn't used as an excuse by European racists and reactionaries to demonize and brutalize North Africans as a community the way "black crime" is used here to demonize an brutalize my people). We cannot deny class oppression, but cannot point to it as a way of evading the realities f racism, surtout STRUCTURAL racism. As Manning Marable put it once, America is not only a class society but a racist society---indeed a racist class society. And in Ameerica where, as Dr. King put, economic injustice and racial injustice are inseparably linked evil twins, we have no choice but to either surrender or to contest the ENTIRE ORDER of society. If freddy wants to be ass kisser and apologist for the established order, so be it. But I've too much self-respect for that

-Savant

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Progressive Compatriots: I would like to commend you for rallying in solidarity with our struggle against police terror. Since the slaying of Michael Brown, Erich Garner, Tamir Rice and numerous other you have shown yourselves to be men and women of principle in demonstrations of solidarity all over this country, and even in some foreign lands Yesterday, many hundreds of you were with us as we protested on behalf of justice for Freddy Gray, who recently died in the custody of Baltimore police. Despite the horrors stories you must have heard about black ghettoes, I even saw a good number of you in the initial gathering outside of Gilmore projects in West Baltimore. One of you happened to been one of my colleagues and fellow philosopher. And I do not want to forget the many Middle Eastern, Latin and Asian folk who were present as well. The Movement is growing, I believe. I believe that most of you do not rally to our cause out of some maudlin pity, but out of a sense of principle, and an awareness that if the plague of police terror besetting Black and Latin communities isn't stopped it will engulf the whole of a America. My colleague and fellow philosopher says that these killings of Black youths by police should be understood as "warning shot" to the rest of America. And many of you have the good sense to realize that as Dr. King was fond of saying "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Therefore, let us fight injustice wherever it rears its ugly head until we have achieved a more just society that will affirm the dignity of every man, woman and child on earth.

-Savant

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One or two placards by white supporters of yesterday's mass demonstration holds my memory: "Black Lives Matter even MORE than WHITE SUPREMACY!" Now beside a black college age lady carrying a sign reading "JAIL Killer Cops!" was a college age white girl with a sign "F___ Killer Cops!" Now that language was a bit extreme. LOL! But I get the sentiment. The Black girl's "JAIL killer cops!" does suggest a practical possibility. Another white dude had a sign "End Racist Police terrorism!" Exactly.

There have been massive protests in the city of Baltimore. People are upset and rightfully so at the death of Freddie Gray. Even the cops admitted that they did not use a safety belt on Freddie Gray, which was against procedure. The Republican Maryland Governor Larry Hogan talked about dispatching 32 state troopers to Baltimore. More of the facts are coming out, but we want the total truth about what happened. Gray was unarmed. He was arrested, but the officers had no legitimate reason to arrest him. He was running. A bystander recorded much of the incident. Gray was screaming in pain while officers dragged him into the police van. He was not immediately given medical treatment or immediately sent to a hospital. Eyewitnesses said that prior to the events captured in the video, the police contorted Gray’s body, forcing his heels onto his back. One bystander said the young man was “folded up like he was… a piece of origami.” The six cops allowed him to be in the vehicle for 30 minutes until he was sent to a hospital. Gray had a coma and died. His spinal cord was heavily damaged. The officers were only suspended with pay. Dondi Johnson back in 2005 died after he was arrested and transported without a seat belt while his hands were cuffed behind his back. The Democratic and African American Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said that she expresses sympathy to the devastated family of the victim, she wants a thorough investigation, and she urged protesters to remain peaceful. The Sunday events in Baltimore revolve around a few people using violence against police cars, other cars, and windows of buildings. These were not peaceful protesters. They were people who did the wrong thing and I wouldn’t be surprised if those folk were agent provocateurs. Like usual, some are trying to use those violent incident as an excuse for them slander all protesters as violent. The family of Freddie Gray have called on people to act peaceful. Also, the police must act peaceful too. Baltimore, for decades, has suffered deindustrialization, the impoverishment of its working class inhabitants, and a narrow oligarchy being grown. Also, many Baltimore residents protested the city’s decision to begin shutting off water service to households that are behind on their water bills. This is wrong. Water is a basic human right. The city’s Department of Public Works announced it would begin cutting off water to as many as 25,000 people. About 368 people have been killed by the police so far in 2015. We are still fighting for racial and economic justice.

I agree with 100 percent with those who have said that the Atlanta teachers are being sent to long prison sentences unjustly. The crux of the matter is that we have a messed up system. The children and the teachers have been the victims of it. I have noticed that the judge wanted to make the case all about him instead of it being about the case. The judge acted narcissistic. There is not a single excuse for cheating on tests, but they can have their licenses revoked, pay a fine, and never be allowed to teach children again without being sent into prison. Critical thinking is critical in education. When I was in elementary school (back in 1988), I never had massive computers. I had teachers who taught me the basics and other things. We had to carry books home and there were tons of after school programs. Also, we worked in summer reading programs that developed our critical skills. Dr. Boyce Watkins made a great point about the meaningless, corrupt standardized testing system. Many are correct to mention that white teachers collectively would never be treated like that. Rapists, murderers, and molesters on some case receive less punishment than these teachers. I disagree with Mayor Kasim Reed. These teachers are being classified as murderers by the status quo, which isn’t the case at all. One teacher was not convicted from the trial. The teachers could have received probation and a fine (which they ought to receive). The teachers serving multiple years in prison is blatantly excessive in my view. Also, the situation in Atlanta Public Schools existed in part because of the issues with high stakes testing. Many teachers massively disapprove of high stakes testing, because teachers teach to the test instead of meeting the educational needs of the students. Each student is different and unique methods must be used to help kids. Many black kids suffer in schools, because of biases found in the system, socioeconomic conditions, lax resources sent to some poorer schools, etc. The establishment promotes the privatization of education, so corporate power can dominate American education. Teachers are not only demonized unfairly. Students are demonized too and many zero tolerance policies, unfair suspensions, falsely labeling some black students as belonging in special education, etc. have harmed the lives of many black students. The teachers who were convicted were humiliated by the judge too. Cheating scandals exist nationwide not just in Atlanta. For long decades, big corporations wanted to harm education. There was one minister, Andrew Young, who even called for the judge to give mercy. Many teachers are underpaid, exploited, and bounded to submit to high stakes testing. Modern schools need to get down to basics. Dr. Watkins has made a great point about the massive racism and classism in American society. American society has violated the human rights of black people then and now. Many industrialized nations have universal health care, great educational services, etc. We have to care for our children and the crumbling schools are reflections of the neglect of the kids (of their educational rights) by the status quo. So, we need revolutionary change in society. That is why many black families are increasingly using home schooling and using more African-based education, which I have no issues with. At the end of the day, we don’t need neoliberalism. We want justice.

The video from the white racist Sheriff from Florida was not surprising at all. Numerous cops readily embrace white supremacist views. The sheriff lied and said that the term African-American has no value, but any black person acknowledging their black African heritage is a blessing. The sheriff David Morgan (who is a white supremacist) said that racism is not a problem in America, but mainstream studies prove that black people with a degree have the same chance of getting a job as white felonies on many cases. We have racial disparities in the criminal justice system and recent studies proving that colorism (which is evil and abominable) is found in the hiring process. Another study documents that people with more “African-sounding names” have a less of a chance of getting a job than those with more “Eurocentric-sounding names.” We have massive incidents of black people being mocked, assaulted, and killed because of their race now not just back then. We have racism and classism being found in America. I read a story where a group of black college students were called the N word by white racists. The establishment may allow a select number of black elites or rich blacks to have some money, but the masses of black people have their wages stagnant, they experience their wealth being stripped especially since the economic recession, and they suffer other issues as well. The racist cop talks about black people embracing “thug culture,” which is a lie. Black people, who are conscious, reject misogyny, unjust violence, murder, and other evils. Black people then and now have embraced progressive art, music, and real culture. There are black organizations now that are fighting all of the time against socially destructive behavior. There is a double standard where the sheriff refuses to talk about how many white kids curse out their parents, about how many whites have meth addiction, and how most serial killers in America are white. That Sheriff won’t call those white people doing such things as embracing “thug culture.” The Sheriff (who ignores the evil of white supremacy while minimizing the pain and suffering of black people) is a true deceiver and uses deflection and deception as a way for him to slander the black community. Also, black people have not been treated as true Americans then and now. Black people have experienced Jim Crow, slavery, sundown towns, income inequality, racism, and police terrorism in America. Malcolm X said that just because we’re born in America doesn’t mean we’re Americans. We have been the victims of American oppression. Just because a black person is President of the United States doesn’t mean that we, as black people, are free from injustice. So, these crooked cops are like race soldiers who use their preconceived notions as a way for them to oppress black people. Black people are being terrorized in society. Any politician should oppose white supremacy outright and want black people to receive compensation as a product of us as black people being terrorized by an evil system. It seems that Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination. We need not only economic development. We need to understand our real history and love our Blackness unapologetically. When black, unarmed people are being killed in broad daylight by cops, then we have an epidemic of police terrorism. Many in the older generation are speaking truth to power too. The younger generation needs encouragement, love, and inspiration to carry on the torch. Racism still goes on today. If an accountant involved in the Holocaust was arrested decades later, then we have every right to fight back for our freedom and liberation. We have to be bold and strong against evil. We reject imperialism and we reject neoliberalism. Black freedom is what we want.

The 2nd intifada continued for a long time during the early part of the 21st century. The international community mostly during this time had sympathy for the Palestinians. On many cases, armed PA policemen, often positioned at the rear of unarmed demonstrations, returned fire. Israel saw the protests as acts of aggressive. Israel used tanks, helicopter gunships, and even F-16 fighter planes to try to stop the intifada. We know that the Israeli army attacked PA installations in Ramallah, Gaza, etc. Civilian neighborhoods were subjected to shelling and aerial bombardment. The Israeli response happened in the occupied territories. Israeli officials said that they were in a war, because they claimed that Israel had a right to “self-defense.” In November 2000, Hamas and Islamic Jihad (and then later the PFLP and the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade) began to use suicide bombings and other armed operations. There were over 150 such attacks from 2000 through 2005, compared to 22 incidents from 1993 to 1999 by Islamist opponents of the Oslo process. I don't agree with suicide attacks at all. A Palestinian life is just as valuable as an Israeli life. In January 2001, Palestinian-Israeli negotiations only briefly resumed. The negotiations came close to a final agreement according to the lead negotiators. Yet, Ehud Barak called it off in advance of early elections he had called for Prime Minister to forestall a likely vote of no confidence in the Knesset. Ariel Sharon handily won the 2001 elections. Ariel Sharon first term as the premier was marked with the most violent part of the second intifada. Sharon allowed the targeted killings of Palestinian militants and Palestinian attacks inside Israel continued too. Then, there was the suicide bombing in Netanya on March 27, 2002 during the Passover holiday. The attacked killed 30 Israelis. Israel of course retaliated. This retaliation was called Operation Defensive Shield. This was about a full scale tank invasion of the West Bank that lasted for several weeks. We know that armored Caterpillar bulldozers raze swathes of the Jenin refugee camp and tanks ringed the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Also, Israeli forces imposed all-day curfews in seven of the West Bank’s eight major towns. The George W. Bush administration backed Israel’s extreme measures. International opinion opposed especially the attack on the Jenin refugee camp. Another, shorter tank invasion against Palestine happened in June. The Likud Party dominated Israeli politics from that moment to the present in 2015. Sharon in 2002 authorized the construction of a barrier between Israel and the West Bank. This was one of his biggest mistakes as Prime Minister. He wanted separation, which is nothing more than apartheid. The wall runs to east of the Green Line marking the border between Israel and the West Bank. The wall blocks locations of travel even within towns and villages. It has changed or reconfigured the geography of the West Bank. The Wall has electronic fences, patrol roads, and observation towers. The ICJ ruled that the wall is disproportionate and therefore constitutes a violation of international law.

Many Palestinians resisted the wall. There were demonstrations and people trying to stop bulldozers from digging the foundation of the barrier. The International Solidarity Movement and thousands of Israelis, many of them organized by Ta‘ayush/Palestinian-Israeli Partnership and Anarchists Against the Wall, have supported the Palestinian popular resistance and regularly participated in its activities. The four-month “peace camp” at the village of Masha in the spring and summer of 2003 and similar efforts in several other villages were critical experiences in forging solidarity among Palestinians, Israelis and internationals. Living and struggling together with Palestinians at this level of intensity for a protracted period raised the consciousness of the hundreds of Israeli participants to an entirely new level. The Oslo peace process ended and we exist in a new situation. Likud opposed a new Palestinian state and refused territorial compromises. Most Palestinians came to reject the limitations of the Oslo Declaration of Principles and its two decades of “process without peace or a Palestinian state." Still, the peace process continued mainly as a way for the U.S. to control Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. The 2002 Arab peace Plan developed. By 2002, the Beirut summit of the Arab League endorsed a peace initiative, which was proposed by Saudi Arabia (as it was a closet ally of Israel even today. Libya didn’t attend the summit). The plan offered an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. It wanted the recognition of Israel, peace agreements and normal relations with all the Arabic states in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories occupied since 1967 (This included the Golan Heights). The plan wanted a “a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194,” and establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Arab League renewed its peace initiative in 2007. In 2002, the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty lasted for almost a quarter of a century. In 1994, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel. Israel established mutual interest sections with Morocco and Tunisia in 1996. Oman and Qatar initiated trade relations with Israel in 1998. Many people wanted a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement. Only the treaties with Egypt and Jordan survived the second intifada. The Arab League did talk about the Palestinians returning to their homes, but it didn’t use the term “right to return.” Sharon rebuffed the Arabic initiative and Benjamin Netanyahu became prime Minister in 2006. Netanyahu of course rejected the Arabic peace plan in 2007. Mahmoud Abbas, who succeeded Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president, enthusiastically supported the Arab League proposals and urged the US to embrace them. In 2009 President Barack Obama announced that he would “incorporate” the Arab proposals into his administration’s Middle East policy. But no public statement by the Obama administration suggests any substantive step in this direction.

I think it's freddy who took flight. First from UK to St. Louis, and then (probably after getting his butt kicked) back to UK from St. Louis. I am at least well grounded; and have been involved in my peoples struggles since at least adolescence. And I will be with them in front of the police station next Wednesday. freddy won't.

Un agent provocateur noir? Yeah....Why doesn't that surprise me? Ironically, our movement may even have created job opportunities in the FBI for foolish or opportunistic blacks. I've not deeply researched this, but I've heard from some veterans of the 1960s that Hoover had to loosen his restrictions on Blacks entering the FBI simply because he needed agents to infiltrate our Movements and our communities. F____g traitors!

-Savant

______

It seems that Bam, like freddy the fool, mainly replies to ideas he doesn't like with insults against the person who holds those ideas. You know, even in the WORST disputes between you and Attai there's usually some content having to do with ideas or issues that the quarrel is about. And heavens knows those encounters can get personally vicious. But what I soon notice about freddy, beginning in the thread "Bring Back the Black Panthers?", was that he increasingly replied to my arguments over ISSUES with a personal insult or quarrel. Now I am as good as offering insults as the next person. But I have too much respect for reason and for truth to substitute insult for argument, or to mistake name calling for debate. And you may have noticed that after awhile, if I see that a principled discussion or debate isn't possible with a given person, I begin responding to him or her less and less.. I'm contemptuous of people who are contemptuous of reason. And I've notice that all reactionary and authoritarian thinking and practices carry a deep strain of anti-intellectuali sm. People who substitute insult for argument, or offer insult AS argument, are enemies of freedom. Hannah Arendt notice this antirationalism as a persistent and central feature of totalitarianism. She noticed it among the Nazis in her native Germany, and Richard Wright noticed it among the Stalinists in Chicago. Our fundamentalists preachers---Christ ian fascists Chris Hedges calls them--are notorious for their anti-rational attitudes. When after I noticed that my efforts at rational debate or discussion were fruitless with freddy, I came to dismiss him as a charlatan and a fool. And I've come to suspect as you and Attai (one of your few agreements on anything) that maybe he is really a racist white Brit. I had started to simply regard him as a white racist negro---or Tom in popular AA vernacular. A black fool. Maybe he's a white racist fool afterall.

-Savant

____________________

Freddy says that he hears whites complaining about police brutality. Duh, old news a____. There has always been police brutality against whites. Read about the history of the labor movement in America---or Europe, fool. No one is saying that racial oppression is the only thing happening. Anyone with the brains of a goose knows there class oppression and political oppression. Poor whites and progressive white activists sometimes find themselves on the wrong side of a cops billy club. The fact still remains that, as one study indicates, the PROPORTION of deadly use of police force happens 20 times more against Blacks than whites. Rarely does any systemmm of oppression target only one group. Even Hitler didn't kill ONLY Jews, but they were his MAIN target. Contemporary Europe oppresses other people besides Blacks or (indeed especially) North Africans. But only a stupid goose thinks that a Caucasian Frenchmen is as likely to face police violence as a Francophone Black or North African. (And I would not be surprised if terrorisme, a real problem, isn't used as an excuse by European racists and reactionaries to demonize and brutalize North Africans as a community the way "black crime" is used here to demonize an brutalize my people). We cannot deny class oppression, but cannot point to it as a way of evading the realities f racism, surtout STRUCTURAL racism. As Manning Marable put it once, America is not only a class society but a racist society---indeed a racist class society. And in Ameerica where, as Dr. King put, economic injustice and racial injustice are inseparably linked evil twins, we have no choice but to either surrender or to contest the ENTIRE ORDER of society. If freddy wants to be a___ kisser and apologist for the established order, so be it. But I've too much self-respect for that.

-Savant

_______________

87% of whites are killed by whites, but the white community is not--NOT YET--subject to growing fascist police terror. And if you, like the typical white racist, think you can either justify or deflect from the issue of police terror and the looming danger of fascism, then you too are a part of problem
Maybe you should read Frantz Fanon's THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH so that you may at least get some insight into the forces making for fratricide in oppressed communities. Maybe you should study your history and ask "why did the crime rate in black Montgomery drop by 60% during the 1955 bus boycott?" Why did solidarity replace internecine violence wherever social struggles happen?
And maybe you should read the May 13, 2014 AlterNet.com article "White People Commit the Most Heinous Crimes, So Why Is America Terrified of Black Men?"
When you've done some homework then maybe we can have a fruitful discussion.

-Savant
______________

It is mainly white racists who claim that the problems of the Black community is of or own making. Of course, there are Black reactionaries who think likewise. What most Black people think--and quite correctly I believe---is that while most of the problems which we face are NOT of our own MAKING, they are still our burden of responsibility. We don't control the international drug traffic--certainly not CIA which brings much of the drugs into the country. But we do know that somehow we must rid ourselves of it. We didn't create mass employment or mass poverty, but somehow we must fight it. And crime, which ole Barros rightly notes to be an expression of the dysfunction bred by oppression, is a problem which MOST Black people recognize and try to combat in a number of ways--and often find themselves in conflict with the cops in doing so. Prior to the mass demonstrations in reply to cops killing of Freddy Gray, there were three hundred black men forming themselves into patrols to combat hoodlumism in the hood. Many of those SAME men are also involved in mass protests against fascistic police terrorism. As one brother (former resident of Lafayette projects) said to me yesterday at our mass demonstratin against fascist cop terror, "It's all the SAME struggle, man. The drugs, the cops, the crime--it's all the same thing, the same oppression we have to fight. You from this area, and you know what I mean." Indeed, I do understand....much better than freddy I assure you.

The Freddie Gray case is continuing. The Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake recently spoke on late April 2015 about seeking answers. She asked why the police didn't immediately send Gray to the hospital. She wants to know what has happened and she said that people deserve answers involving this tragic situation. The mayor sent condolences to the family of Freddie Gray. The mayor is African American, Gray is African American, and Baltimore is mostly African American, so we can't ignore the class and racial dynamics of this situation. The cops in modern day society will readily receive the benefit of the doubt by the establishment. That is the way it is among Western society. So, it is very immoral for the cops involved in the death of Gray to be only be suspended without pay. Yet, I’m not surprised by this erroneous action. Gray, before he died, was obviously in a lot of pain. Why wasn’t he placed into a hospital immediately? He was with the police for over 30 minutes before he was carried into the hospital. Witnesses said that Gray was yelling for medical attention, because video footage shows him in pain. The slander against the protesters (being said by reactionaries) in Baltimore is similar to how the racists slandered the protesters in Ferguson & NYC. Witnesses said that before Gray was sent to a police van, Gray was subjected to a horrific form of torture and he was folded up. He was unable to walk on his own. We know that Baltimore has a long history of police brutality, which has resulted in $5.7 million in payouts to victims since 2011. The Baltimore Sun reported that “Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson.” The death of Gray is similar to the death of Dondi Johnson. Johnson had his spine fractured after he was given an intentional “rough ride” in a police van that arrived at the station in half the time it would have taken if it were driving at the speed limit. His family received a $7.4 million judgment, which was subsequently reduced to $200,000. Not giving handcuffed prisoners seat belts have caused people to be paralyzed. Many cops act as occupying forces. The militarized police have been used in Ferguson and throughout America. Baltimore has lost more than 84 percent of its manufacturing jobs since 1970. Its official poverty rate is more than 25 percent. There is a controversial curfew law and Baltimore wants to shut off the water supplies of some of its residents. The working class and the poor have protested police brutality in Baltimore. There is no massive tracking of police killing in the national level, while some in both parties have transferred billions of dollars in military hardware to local police. That’s a problem. That is why we are opposed to war, inequality, and oppression. We want justice and a true egalitarian form of society.

There is an U.S. drone strike which killed 2 Al-Qaeda hostages. The story is a tragedy. Yesterday, the President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. counterterrorism operation in January had killed 2 men. They were prisoners by Al-Qaeda in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. The family of Weinstein was sent to the terrorists and then the demands changed. One of the men who was killed was Warren Weinstein, who was an American university professor. He worked as a contractor for a U.S. government aid program in Pakistan and the other man being murdered was Giovani Lo Porto. Port was an Italian humanitarian aid worker. He helped earthquake victims in that country. Press reports cited unnamed officials that the attack was a drone missile strike, which was directed by the CIA. The U.S. government notified the families of Weinstein and Lo Porto and the Italian government of their deaths. Now, there is a debate on the drone program itself. The drone program has killed many civilians including children all over the Earth. There are details being sorted out on the deaths of the 2 men. Obama said, “As president and commander-in-chief I take full responsibility for all counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives” of Weinstein and Lo Porto.” The Department of Justice has issued a legal finding to try to justify the CIA and Pentagon launching drone missile strikes against any target selected by the President. Many drone strikes are done by signature strikes. The signature strikes involve observing men in turbans with guns (not necessary an identification of specific individuals). It is done as a product of monitoring certain behavior patterns. These drone attacks occur in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Africa, etc. Drone strikes have killed thousands of innocent people. We know of untold Pashtuns, Yemenis, Africans, etc. who have died as product of drone strikes without any mention of the corporate-dominated mainstream media of the West. By one recent estimate, one set of drone strikes targeting 41 alleged Al Qaeda leaders—some of whom survived the attacks—killed 1,147 people. The overall death toll from US drone missile strikes was estimated at 4,700 in 2013, and there have been dozens of strikes since then. Dr. Weinstein’s wife, Elaine, issued a statement that said the family was “devastated” and criticized the attitude of both the Pakistani and American governments. Pakistan had treated the hostage as “more of an annoyance than a priority,” while US government assistance to the family was “inconsistent and disappointing.” “We hope that my husband’s death and the others who have faced similar tragedies in recent months will finally prompt the US government to take its responsibilities seriously and establish a coordinated and consistent approach to supporting hostages and their families,” she said. The government refused to negotiate for the release of hostage, which some view as contributing to the killing of journalists like James Foley in Syria, Luke Somers in Yemen, etc. The drone program overtly violates the Fifth Amendment regardless of Eric Holder says. An American citizen according to that Amendment may never be deprived of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness without due process of law. Al-Qaeda operatives Ahmed Farouq and Adam Gadahn (or Azzam the American) were killed by the strike in January 2015. Drone strikes killing civilians are readily war crimes.

I read the rest of the article on theGrio (about Hotep Twitter). The jest of the article is that hypocritical people (who claim to be conscious) actually try to use disturbing rhetoric against black women and other minorities (which is ironically the same agenda of white supremacy which these faux “conscious” people claim to oppose). To assume that every black feminist wants to dominate and harm black men in an oppressive fashion is stupid and ignorant. To assume that a patriarchal supremacist order can liberate black women is foolishness. At the same time, there is nothing wrong with using real programs in improving the conditions of black families. There is nothing wrong with promoting black unity either. It is true that some white women in the suffrage movement were racists. Also, the caricature from Hotep Twitter is blatantly offensive since it depicts black women who voluntarily choose to be feminists as monolithically oppressive and embracing misandry completely, which is not the case at all. The image shows a black woman in a disrespectful fashion. Some black women call themselves womanists too. Many memes, as shown in social media, focus on demonizing people instead of inspiring people. I have looked at many memes on Instagram accounts that mock the physical appearances of black people in general (in disrespectful ways). Some of these reactionary extremists (who use “black consciousness” as a cloak) do blame the victim for rape, etc. One thing that these extremists rarely do is that they refuse to expose capitalist exploitation or how classism including racism has oppressed the black community. We have to promote more compassion with our people not make a sport out of degrading people in a vicious fashion. That is what realness is all about, because beauty is compassion. We can agree to disagree without using callous, evil invective. We can be progressive, conscious, and authentic without misogynistic and xenophobic rhetoric (and white supremacists ironically embrace that evil rhetoric to the fullest). Promoting true altruism is what real living is all about. Also, we should never stereotype everybody in the black conscious community as anti-intellectual, retrograde people. There are countless sincere, courageous black male and black female people in the conscious community (like Sister Soujah and Solomon Comissiong) who have written great books, have stood up against white supremacy, and are helping black people in communities worldwide. Their work should be acknowledged and honored. At the end of the day, we, as black people, want freedom and justice.

The question itself shows that some people are more concerned with the dating habits of people than freedom and justice. Also, the maker of the video wants to insult the intelligence of black women. We know that black women will treat anyone with respect regardless of ethnicity. We know tons of black women who have treated black men and men in general with honor, respect, and compassion. We know that women in general have every right to fulfill their own destinies and live out their lives as human beings. I didn’t look at the video. I did check out the owner of the YouTube account (who has shown that video). The person who owns the YouTube account has many videos in his page filled with misogynoir. That shows me what agenda that the person is trying to spew. The video is an attack on black women straight up. Black women and any human being have the right to date who they want. Me personally, I am attracted to my own people romantically (of the opposite gender). Yet, I will never restrict the right of any human being the choice to date who they love. Ultimately, love deals with trust, commitment, common ground, and perseverance. Relationships are diverse. There are tons of black couples who are loving too. I find that many of those folks who constantly demonize black women are people with low self-esteem, self-hatred issues, and they have other massive issues. At the end of the day, black people are dealing with the issues of police brutality, unemployment, health care, education, etc. We don't need distractions (as shown by that video). We want constructive action. Black people want liberation. The Black Lives Matter movement is certainly growing. First, it is not racist for black people in their own communities to execute self-determination. Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in self-determination being executed by black people. We know that there is classism and economic exploitation must be discussed. The police institution follows the interests of the oligarchy. Yet, there can be no solution unless racism and economic oppression are addressed. Class oppression and racism are linked. When other ethnic groups form their own infrastructures peacefully (like developing their own stores, cultural centers, etc.), they are not readily called racists. When black people use our God-given right to unify and build in our communities peacefully and without showing malice to others, then we (as black people) are slandered as racists. That slander is wrong and it's evil. Glen Ford has every right to call for the resistance against oppression in our communities. Also, we have to address poverty and corporate exploitation including imperialism. If someone is not against the system of white supremacy, then that person is not seeing the whole picture. All of humanity should be free. Police terrorism is in epidemic levels in America. This system is not just promoting privatization and corporate corruption. The system promotes the criminal injustice system, discrimination, and ecological terrorism too.

The Republicans candidates overtly have shown that they are in league with corporate power. Wall Street banks have funded the GOP leadership for a long time. We see how the candidates from Rubio to Jeb Bush refuse to endorse a living wage, refuse to promote a real progressive foreign policy, refuse to promote immigrant rights, and refuse to strengthen the social safety net (that people fought and died for). The oligarchy certainly loves an austerity agenda, so their plutocratic profits can increase at the expense of the interests of the working class. The Koch Brothers and the one percent are aiding the political machine that dominates both major parties. Lawrence Wilkerson is right to say that people should talk about Ferguson, the prison industrial complex, and other real issues important to African Americans including all freedom loving peoples. Also, there is nothing wrong with political independence either. We live under an austerity system today. The bipartisan austerity agenda has not worked to end poverty in America. The recommended $4 trillion in cuts made by the deficit reduction commission is barbaric and obscene. The 2011 US/NATO bombing campaign against Libya was not only evil, but a war crime. We have seen the West aid terrorists who have caused the raping, lynching, and murder of black Libyan men, women, and children. That is not just. We have seen the expansion of evil proxy wars in Syria, Yemen, etc. This is definitely not just. A kill list is wicked and funding Wall Street via record bailout is a wrong policy to pursue. We see that the Western intelligence surveillance of American citizens that has grown since 2001. Also, we face the epidemic of police terrorism. We need information and we need more than that. We need police officers who are guilty of crimes to be tried, convicted, and jailed for their crimes. There must be systematic change in a comprehensive, expansive way. Racial justice and economic justice are needed. We not only want jobs, but we want justice too. We want an end to Empire, so society can reach its highest potential and experience the Promised Land for real.

In her 1987 autobiography, Assata Shakur characterized liberalism as a politically and morally bankrupt ideology, writing:

"I have never really understood exactly what a ‘liberal’ is, since I have heard ‘liberals’ express every conceivable opinion on every conceivable subject. As far as I can tell, you have the extreme right, who are fascist racist capitalist dogs like Ronald Reagan, who come right out and let you know where they’re coming from. And on the opposite end, you have the left, who are supposed to be committed to justice, equality, and human rights. And somewhere between those two points is the liberal.
As far as I’m concerned, ‘liberal’ is the most meaningless word in the dictionary."

IMO Mike Dyson showed his true Obama right or wrong colors in a 2012 debate w Bro Glen Ford re backing Obama for a 2nd term as POTUS. Dyson was full of hot-air & long-winded rhetoric & Hyperbole, but woefully short on substance in his fawning pretzel-logical praise of OBomber.

More than one thousand people have protested in Baltimore, Maryland over the death of Freddie Gray. People want answers and people are entitled to answers. Over one hundred people have won lawsuits against the Baltimore police over police brutality since 2011. There are many investigations involving the death of Freddie Gray. The Justice Department announced that it will begin their own civil rights investigation. The six officers involved in Gray’s arrest are the following people: Lt. Brian Rice, Sgt. Alicia White, and Officers Caesar Goodson, William Porter, Edward Nero and Garrett Miller. All six officers have been suspended with pay during the investigation into Gray's death. The protesters want justice. They are calling for all six officers to be arrested and charged with first degree murder. There are questions on what happened between the time Gray was placed in the police vehicle and the time when Gray died. The video footage shows officers carrying Gray into the police van, but he was never immediately carried into the hospital. Gray is clearly injured as shown by the video footage. Gray was sent into a police station and then then to the hospital for about a half an hour. Gray was taken down by the police. The take down procedure of the police caused the spinal cord injury of Gray. Gray died after experiencing a coma. The police have not released an autopsy. Gray asked for help repeatedly and the police refused to give him immediate medical attention. Speaking on CNN, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a Democrat, admitted that while he was in police custody, Gray “requested medical attention” between one to three times, which was in turn “not requested for him” by police. Rawlings-Blake also admitted that the officers involved have yet to be comprehensively interviewed about what took place before, during and after Gray's arrest. The mayor said that she will get to the bottom of it by saying that: “…because of our Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights, we have yet to fully engage those officers, and we will get to the bottom of it.” One of the people who recorded the widely-viewed footage of the police arresting Gray claims that he began filming immediately after he witnessed police using excessive force against Gray. Speaking anonymously, he told CNN that “they had Freddie Gray up into what I would like to call a pretzel type of move, where they had the heels of his feet to his back, and then he was still in handcuffs, and they had his knee to the back of his neck.” Protester Harold Perry, 73, told a local news station that the arrest took place near his home, and that he heard Gray scream "You're hurting me! Get your knee off my back." He also heard Gray tell police "I'm an asthmatic." This situation is not just an individual case. It’s a systematic problem. We have to find out why he was arrested, the medical records, and the information on how he passed away. Obviously, the cops involved in this situation must be held accountable. I’m in solidarity with the protesters.

It is important that we resist. We must not only resist against the oligarchy, but develop strategies that can empower our communities too. Michelle Alexander and others are telling the truth about how the criminal justice system has oppressed black people, the poor, and the rest of the American people. One of the greatest points that Sister Michelle Alexander said is that it is hypocritical for the police to refuse to snitch on each other via the Blue Wall of Silence, yet the police want the community to snitch on people. The truth is that any unjust crime must be opposed regardless if it is done by a cop or non-cop. Police brutality must end. The Black Lives Matter movement is a new movement, but it has gained great strength. We have to mobilize and organize too. We need progressive legislation and community control of policing. Also, we have to address economic inequality and racism. Our criminal justice system is very racist as studies have documented. We all know that the police institution is an extension of the oligarchy or the 1 percent. It's an instrument of control, repression, and overt oppression. We have the right to subsequently stand up for our human rights. When we discuss about the Maafa, it didn't just occur centuries ago. It has happened with the NYC riots of 1863 when black men, women, and children were killed by racists, it occurred with the attack on Black Wall Street, and it has occurred in other places globally. This news shows us that we are all we got literally. Egoism, pettiness, etc. must be eliminated and we have to continue in the real work where our community can live in the Promised Land for real.

First, I will make a point because showing what I think of Dyson’s essay. As a community, we will not agree on every issue. We can agree to disagree on many things without using obscene, false invective. With that being said, I think that Dyson omits many things in his essay. He omits that Cornell West loves the President and his family as he has admitted. Love is not about unconditional agreement. Love is demanding and it is a strong force which can be used to stand up for justice as a witness. Cornell West just disagrees with the White House on many issues in strong terms. I don’t believe that Cornell West has lost his intellectual vitality. I don’t believe that he is some faint echo of himself. I agree with Cornell West in many his critiques of the President. My only disagreement with Cornell West is that some of his criticism (like calling him a Rockefeller Republican in “blackface”) is over the top (in my view). That rhetoric is the same rhetoric that white racists use to describe the President, his wife, and his children. Other than that, West is absolutely right to condemn the growth of the American Empire, to oppose police brutality, to disagree with corporate Wall Street bailouts, to disagree with torture, to oppose misogyny, to disagree with the President’s drone program, and to promote justice for all. Cornell West is speaking truth to power on those issues. The President calling black American people a "mongrel people" (you can Google this fact) and taking down to Morehouse graduates in offensive terms (when they did do the right thing), and saying that police terrorism is not endemic today are comments that I disagree with completely. I greatly respect West's recent speeches and I have read his recent literature (like the Black Prophetic Fire and the Radical King books which I do enjoy reading). Michael Eric Dyson has done great work in defending progressive hip hop, standing up for the poor (and he eloquently refuted the poor scapegoating lies shown not only by white reactionaries, but by black bourgeois compromisers), and his advocacy against police terrorism. Yet, Michael Eric Dyson omits the imperial policies and the neoliberal extremism being executed by the current administration. He can show his concerns with Cornell West in private instead of showing a note in a website. So, hopefully both men can iron out their differences. We need solutions. The divide and conquer deal doesn’t work. At the end of the day, we are one people and we want justice for our black people. Also, we have to keep our politicians accountable regardless of their skin color. Worship of any politician unconditionally is silliness. We love the truth.

Ben Affleck should have known that people would criticize him for not being upfront with exposing the fact of his slave owning ancestors. Also, Gates should have used more courage in presenting this fact in public. Why would he email a Sony CEO (Sony is part of the Hollywood empire) when his show is about outlining the transparent history of many groups of people? It doesn't make sense. Either way, Gates messed up badly. It is ironic that Affleck did this when he champions his liberal "credentials." Of course, he will apologize. Apologies are commonly shown these days. The larger picture is that we have to learn about the brutal history of slavery and understand that the legacy of slavery didn't end in 1865. People can talk about black slave owners (while these haters omit the fact that slave owners were mostly white in America. They ignore the massive psychological and physical abuse inflicted on our black ancestors), etc. but the origin of the Maafa wasn't done by black people collectively. The system of white supremacy is the origin of the Maafa and American slavery completely. Instead of some blaming black people collectively, we need to blame white supremacy for the origin of our oppression in the first place. This is a sad story. It shows that police officers who kill innocent, unarmed human beings readily receive no true accountability. Non-cops, who have done far less, have received lengthy jail sentences, yet the arrogant Servin killed a Sister and he has been found not guilty. This police terrorism is part of the corrupt system. From the slave patrols to the Texas Rangers using xenophobic terrorism over a century ago (when they worked for the Confederacy, and killed Native Americans), we faced repression and overt oppression. Murderous, evil cops have no respect from me at all. I send my prayers and condolences to the family of Rekia Boyd.
RIP Sister Rekia Boyd.
#Black Lives Matter.

I read the rest of the article on theGrio (about Hotep Twitter). The jest of the article is that hypocritical people (who claim to be conscious) actually try to use disturbing rhetoric against black women and other minorities (which is ironically the same agenda of white supremacy which these faux “conscious” people claim to oppose). To assume that every black feminist wants to dominate and harm black men in an oppressive fashion is stupid and ignorant. To assume that a patriarchal supremacist order can liberate black women is foolishness. At the same time, there is nothing wrong with using real programs in improving the conditions of black families. There is nothing wrong with promoting black unity either. It is true that some white women in the suffrage movement were racists. Also, the caricature above is blatantly offensive since it depicts black women who voluntarily choose to be feminists as monolithically oppressive and embracing misandry completely, which is not the case at all. The image above shows a black woman in a disrespectful fashion. Some black women call themselves womanists too. Many memes, as shown in social media, focus on demonizing people instead of inspiring people. I have looked at many memes on Instagram accounts that mock the physical appearances of black people in general (in disrespectful ways). Some of these reactionary extremists (who use “black consciousness” as a cloak) do blame the victim for rape, etc. One thing that these extremists rarely do is that they refuse to expose capitalist exploitation or how classism including racism has oppressed the black community. We have to promote more compassion with our people not make a sport out of degrading people in a vicious fashion. That is what realness is all about, because beauty is compassion. We can agree to disagree without callous, evil invective. We can be progressive, conscious, and authentic without misogynistic and xenophobic rhetoric (and white supremacists ironically embrace that evil rhetoric to the fullest). Promoting true altruism is what real living is all about. Also, we should never stereotype everybody in the black conscious community as anti-intellectual, retrograde people. There are countless sincere, courageous black male and black female people in the conscious community (like Sister Soujah and Solomon Comissiong) who have written great books, have stood up against white supremacy, and are helping black people in communities worldwide. Their work should be acknowledged and honored. At the end of the day, we, as black people, want freedom and justice.

I grew up in the ghettoes of East Baltimore and I'm now myself a university professor. I had some scary run ins with the cops while in the hood, and have had some since I've become a "successful black professional. " You can certainly say that I've changed, that my "mindset " is different in many ways from what it was whebn at age 17 I was nearly killed by cops in Johnson Square. But I don't see the police or judicial system has change a hell of a lot since then. In fact, some of my encounters with cops (especially but not only in the South) often revealed ressentiment on the part of cops that I was educated or successful. You speak of Skip Gates. Well his former colleague mentions being arrested by the police who refused to believe he could be wearing such fine clothes or driving a car unless he was a a dope dealer. I happen to KNOW Dr. West (for there are only a handful of us Black philosophers in the USA), and I recall his mention to me of being arrested and detained on suspicion of having raped a white girl. The cops actually tried to pressure her into identifying Cornel as her attacker. Thank heavens she didn't cooperate. ("Brother Savant, I'd probably STILL be in prison if they had convinced that white girl to lie on me" he said). West also mentioned the usual annoyances of being able to catch cab in Manhattan (even slovenly dressed white men and women being picked up as cabs passed him by. Barack Obama mentions his own experiences with racism which he records in DREAMS FROM MY FATHER and AUDACITY OF HOPE. I think that many "successful " class privileged blacks are closing their eyes to what is happening and claiming, as I heard two black bourgeois (one male, one female) say in some other thread that only ghetto criminals, hoodrats and thug trash have reason to worry about police violence. That might come as a surprise to Arthur MacDuffie, black entrepreneur bludgeoned to death by cops in Miami in 1980 (with, as usual, the cops being exonerated). That certainly came as a surprise to a young sister and daughter (whose mother is a black judge in Bmore) when she was arrested on Greenmount Ave with no charge, and then manhandled for daring to question the cops about why she was being arrested. (That young lady was a student of mine). And I could go on and on. Others may delude themselves. I refuse to be deluded.

-Savant

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I've seen data which indicate that Blacks (considering their per centage in the nation as as a whole) are murdered by cops something like 15--20 times more than whites. You can say that there are far more poor whites than poor Blacks--indeed poor whites might out number the entire Black population. But there can be no doubt that PROPORTIONATELY Blacks are poorer. Similar with police terror: Possibly more whites are killed, but PROPORTIONATELY more blacks are slain by cops, and under circumstances they're not likely to be killed if they were white. And since Coretta mentions Henry L. Gates, when he was arrested a number of his white colleagues admitted that under the same set of circumstances they most likely would not be arrested. But if it were them probably the police wouldn't have been called nor paid any attention whatsoever. And if Obama was white he wouldn't have had to calm nerves with a beer party after stating---the correct understatement---t hat the cops acted stupidly.

-Savant

________________

The majority of Black people (including many "biracial " folk) agree with me. Even Barack Obama, though he'd want to tone it down, would agree, and have said things similar. Only he has to appease a lot of people--people with more power than is possessed by the black population. And when Blacks are fighting to change society, to resist injustice they are precisely dealing with their own issues. But whites who won't face the realities of racism and injustice, but rant on tirelessly about "black failures,' clearly do not want to deal with their own issues--their own demons, and the demons haunting the corrupt social order of the USA. By the way, to generalize based solely on your personal experiences often leads to fallacious reasoning and confusion.

C'est vrai....Mais les tyrants "secular " tend to turn their ideologies into ersatz religions very similar in mentality to the fanaticism of the worst of traditional religions. Mao becomes a kind of god and the red book a bible. Tom Paine, American revolutionary supporter of the French revolution (nearly executed by Robespierre) notes that one found a mentality in some of the Jacobins similar to that of the Inquisition, with the guillotine replacing burning at the stake. Robespierre tried to found a secular faith, but it proved as repressive as older faiths. And, of course, Hitler became a godlike figure and his Mein Kampf a kind of bible. The problem, as Bertrand Russell put it, is probably less WHAT these ideologies believed than the WAY in which they're believed it. Marx offers a critique or hypothesis and his followers turn it into gospel. No wonder Marx wrote "Je n'est ne suis Marxiste.

-Savant

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Imperialism is an evil system of global exploitation; but the players, the dominant groups, are the ultra-rich 1%. The ruling classes. This system and those classes are the enemies of Blacks both here and abroad, and indeed are the enemies of humankind. Ordinary people are primarily the victims rather than perpetrators of imperialism. Only a political idiot thinks that ORDINARY Black Americans, or ordinary folk of any group, are responsible for imperialism. Until very recently the ruling classes had NO black or brown members--at least not in the West. (Japan is a different picture altogether). For the most part the ruling classes and the system of imperialism--roote d in capitalism--is still white, but not totally. I really do think people ought to study the history and nature of imperialism, especially we in American have (since WWII & Soviet collapse) live in the land that is the strongest pillar of imperialism. The one way in which ordinary folk might bear responsibility for the evils of imperialism is by supporting the imperial policies of the government, or maybe even by adopting an attitude of indifference regarding what the government and the corporate power structure is doing in our name, and often with our tax dollars.

Monday, April 20, 2015

It has been over 20 years since the Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City. It occurred on April 19, 1995. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was in the sixth grade of middle school when it occurred. I saw the carnage on television inside of my middle school in fact. I have seen the carnage, the blood, the weeping, and the suffering of innocent human beings on television during that horrific day. 168 innocent human beings including children were killed. Timothy McVeigh was a murderer and a terrorist. I don’t respect him. Also, it is important to learn the factors that drove him into becoming a murdering terrorist too. First, it must be established that the bombing was a product of a conspiracy. More than one person was involved in this tragedy like Terry Nichols, so by definition, it was a conspiracy. We send our condolences and prayers to the victims’ families. This event has shown the world of the the truth that love and reconciliation are what we need in the world, not hatred and murder. Timothy McVeigh was born in New York state in the town of Lockport in April of 1968. This area suffered economic blight and massive social inequality. Even as a child, he read survivalist literature. This is not to stereotype all survivalists as terrorists. Not everyone who believes in conspiracies or has skepticism about governmental policy is a terrorist. So, I want to make that perfectly clear. This is about how fascism and obscene extremism should be condemned unconditionally. Timothy McVeigh was a fascist. He was a living representation of a fascist. After the late 1960’s, the Rust belt and many communities of the Northeast suffered economic troubles because of Reaganonomics, deindustrialization, and other regressive policies. This caused tensions among workers. McVeigh graduated from high school. He went into college and once wanted to work in technology. Yet, he decicied to join the military. He excelled in the military and fought in the Persian Gulf War. The Persian Gulf War lasted for a temporary period time (involving protecting Western oil interests in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) and he killed an Iraqi soldier. During this time, he read more literature about certain subject matters and became paranoid about spewing anti-socialist and anti-communist rhetoric. A fascist always hates socialist views. He was captivated to literature like the volume entitled To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth, by Jeff Cooper, a military man and a world-renowned expert on self-defense. The Turner Diaries was another book that hit a nerve for him (and he read that book). The novel was written by former American Nazi Party official William L. Pierce (under the pen name Andrew McDonald). That book caused him to further develop his radical views. He felt that he was used as a puppet by the government, so he wanted to respond against the government.

Some militia members, and other fascist extremists love the book “The Turner Diaries.” The Turner Diaries described a plot of white supremacists to destroy a federal building in order to usher in a race war (so white supremacists can govern America. This is ironic since the system of racism/white supremacy still oppresses black people today). The book was outright racist and anti-Semitic. Many white racist criminals read the book like John William King, David Copeland, etc. not just Timothy McVeigh. So, this extremism (of using even unjust violence against the government and people) was embraced by McVeigh for years. He failed to go and be in the Special Forces, because the SF viewed him as psychologically unfit to serve. He was discharged from the military on December 31, 1991. He witnessed the Rudy Ridge incident on TV where a white supremacist was killed by the feds. He saw the incident of Waco near the compound in 1993. I remember the time. He had anti-government views. The Waco event was when the federal government attacked the building, men, women, and children were killed. I don't agree with David Koresh, but the government used outright excessive force and killed many people. That was wrong. This incident set Timothy McVeigh off. He was angered at the deaths of people in Waco. He wanted revenge as a means for him to attacked the U.S. government which he has hated. So, he and Terry Nichols brought materials to form a bomb. Timothy McVeigh admitted that he called Elohim City for Andreas Strassmeir on April 5, 1995. Elohim City is hotbed of racists, extremists, and other folks. McVeigh wanted to tell Andreas to allow him to use Elohim City as a hideout after the bombing. Also, McVeigh and Strassmeier met each other at a Tulsa gun show in 1994. McVeigh admitted discussing political issues with Strassmeir, the grandson of a founder of the Nazi party, but claimed that Strassmeir had nothing to do with the bombing itself. A polygraph test taken by McVeigh, however, showed that while he was truthful in discussing his own role in the bombing, he "showed signs of evasion" when he said no persons, other than those already charged, were involved in the bombing. It is dubios to assume that the OKC bombing wasn’t a conspiracy. That will be shown later on. The bombing was brutal. McVeigh pretended to be a "rebel," but he was a racist terrorist. Timothy McVeigh also disrespected the families of the victims in his own words. That showed how much of a coward and disgraceful male that McVeigh was. He was executed on June 2001. The neoliberal President Bill Clinton expressed condolences. Clinton also used the terrorist attack as an excuse for him to sign anti-democratic laws which violated human civil liberties. That is why it is immoral to kill innocent human life. We want change, but we bring change by protests, demonstrations, grassroots organization, and resisting evil in more constructive means (without murder, without bigotry, and without terrorism). I'm opposed to the agenda of the Koch Brothers (as the Tea Party in the mainstream level has been funded by the corporate oligarchy), the neo-Confederates, and other reactionary extremists. This doesn't mean that we ignore the criminal actions of the government. Operation Phoenix, Operation Ajax, and other evils were done by the state. I have a problem with the government being involved in imperialism. I have no problem with economically progressive policies from the government in helping people though. The OKC Bombing was an injustice and we will continue to fight for justice.

The growth of fuel cell vehicle is part of technology now and in the future. These cars can run on zero-emissions that run on hydrogen. Fuel cell vehicles have promised many advantages over vehicles powered by electricity or hydrocarbons. This technology has evolved to the point where automotive companies are planning launches for consumers. Some of these cars can be as high as $70,000. It can come down significantly as volumes increase within the next few years. Batteries must be charged from an external source. They can take from 5 to 12 hours to be charged depending on the car and charger. On the other hand, fuel cells generate electricity directly by using hydrogen or natural gas. Fuel cells and batteries combined can make cars stronger. Fuel cell vehicles are like hybrids and will deploy regenerative braking which recovers energy from waste heat, which is a key capacity for maximizing efficiency and range. Unlike battery powered electric vehicles, fuel cell powered ones have a long cruising range which is up to 650 kilometers per tank. The fuel is usually compressed hydrogen gas. A hydrogen fuel refill only takes about three minutes. Hydrogen is clean burning. It produces only water vapor as waste. Fuel cell vehicles using hydrogen will be zero emission, which can reduce air pollution. There are many ways to produce hydrogen without causing carbon emission. Renewable sources of electricity from wind and solar sources can be used to electrolyze water. Its overall energy efficiency of this process will be likely low. There will be a necessity for a stronger hydrogen distribution infrastructure to parallel and eventually replace gas and diesel filling stations. Apple also has the Apple pay app that deals with financial transactions. Also, Apple is promoting their new smart watches as well.

We know about the IMF and the World Bank. They meet in Washington, D.C. Today, we have a stagnant economy. There has been an unprecedented levels of financial parasitism and social inequality. There has been the record highs of stock prices found in the U.S. Europe, and Asia. Global corporations have hoarded about $1.3 trillion. This has existed as a produce of cheap credit from the central banks and the government-corporate attacks on workers’ wages and living standards. The IMF said that the world economy will still have slow growth, high unemployment, and high debt for a prolonged period of time. The IMF admitted that there is little prospect for a return to growth levels before the 2008 financial crisis. There has been trillions of dollars in public subsidies sent to the financial markets. Global capitalism has a crisis. It has not been resolved totally. Articles by the Financial Times gives an indication of the deepening malaise. They include: “An economic future that may never brighten,” “IMF warns of long period of lower growth,” “Europe’s debtor paradise will end in tears,” “QE raises fears of euro zone liquidity squeeze,” and “Global property bubble fears mount as prices and yields spike.” The IMF report says that there is a sharp decline in private business investment like in the advanced economies of North America, Europe, and Asia. We see a situation where the growth rate in the economy is very sluggish. The IMF report adds, “These findings imply that living standards may expand more slowly in the future. In addition, fiscal sustainability will be more difficult to maintain as the tax base will grow more slowly.” This means that the elite is allowing the global assault on living standards and democratic rights of the people. Austerity has thrown millions of people into poverty. We know that QE or quantitative easing (as done by the central banks to financial interests while holding interest rates close to zero percent) has done little to help the economy. There is not a massive investment in production in the USA too. There are near record levels of corporate buybacks and mergers. This is a parasitic economic system. Wealth is used to enrich the tiny global aristocracy of bankers, CEOs, and speculators. Over the past decade, S&P 500 companies have repurchased some $4 trillion worth of shares. Major companies, including Apple, Intel, IBM and General Electric, play a central role in the ongoing buyback frenzy. Last week alone, three corporate takeovers totalling over $105 billion were announced, including Royal Dutch Shell’s purchase of Britain’s BG Group. The value of all takeovers announced this year to date is more than $1 trillion, setting the pace for 2015 to be the second biggest year for mergers and acquisitions in history. We see high unemployment, declining job opportunities, the growth of low paying jobs, etc. The possibility of an international war in the midst of an economic crisis has been discussed. We have the right to change things.

There have been waves of assassinations of people in Ukraine. It has targeted the critics of Kiev regime. This comes near the May 9th celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany at the end of World War II. We have seen an accelerating wave of political assassinations targeting crisis of the Western backed, far right regime in Kiev. There is a group calling themselves the Ukranian Insurgent Army or the UPA. The UPA originally decades ago was a Ukrainian fascist militia that collaborated with the Nazi forces in carrying out ethnic genocides of Jewish people and Poles during WWII. This modern UPA group has claimed opposition responsibility for the killings via an email statement. This statement was sent to opposition legislators and political commentators. The statement gave “anti-Ukrainian” persons 72 hours to leave the country or be killed if they stayed behind. So, this group has pleged to exterminate the enemies of the Ukraine puppet regime. They wanted to enact a “merciless insurrectionary struggle against the anti-Ukrainian regime of traitors and Moscow toadies,” according to a report in Der Spiegel. The killing spree began this week with the murder of the journalist Sergey Sukhobo. On Wednesday evening, Oleg Kalashnykov was found dead in his home in Kiev. He was a former parliamentarian from the Party of Region. He was a close ally of President Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian politician ousted in a NATO-backed, fascist-led putsch in February of 2014, This caused the installation of the current regime in Kiev. According to Interior Ministry advisor Anton Herashenko, the killers were waiting for Kalashnykov outside his residence and shot him when he returned. Oleg said that he had received death threats over his call to commemorate May 9. He addressed a letter to his friends warning that “open genocide on dissent, death threats, and constant dirty insults” had become the “norm” since he publicly raised the issue. He reportedly added in the letter that Ukraine was under Nazi occupation. On Thursday, the pro-Russian journalist Oles Buzyna was shot and killed near his house in Kiev by 2 unidentified masked gunmen firing from a car. Buzyna had edited the Segodnya newspaper, a pro-Russian publication financed by Ukraine’s richest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, a multi-billionaire who was also one of the leading sponsors of Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions. Also killed on Thursday was Neteshinskiy Vestnik editor Olga Moroz. These murders comes against high profile opponents of the Kiev regime. These victims are mostly political and media members (with ties to the post-Soviet Ukrainian business oligarchy tied to Akhmetov, Yanukovych, and the Kremlin oligarchy in Russia). There were other murders as well. Reactionary politicans like Borys Filatov and Irinia Farion (of the fascist Svoboda Party) either praised the killings or criticized Buzyna. Ukraine now has banned public discussion of communism. The Kiev regime has enacted other police state, anti-civil liberty measures too. In an account on Facebook of a speech he had given at Harvard University, pro-Kiev regime commentator and political analyst Yuri Romanenko boasted that he had argued for murdering pro-Russian journalists and summarized his arguments. It is hypocritical for the Kiev puppet regime to blame the murder of the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on Russia, but they readily ignore the murder of Kiev regime’s opponents in Ukraine.

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About Me

I'm a young adult learning new information and finding the truth. Over the years, I'm becoming more meek. I will still defend my beliefs though when it is necessary. I am 33 years old now. I like living in Hampton Roads. Hampton Roads is apart of Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. I live in the 7 city group of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. Yorktown, Williamsburg, Glocuster, Cape Charles, Elizabeth City, Currituck, Sussex, and Poquoson are apart of Hampton Roads as well. So, I don't forget those important places as well. I enjoy looking at religious information, conspiracy fact information, and politics. Additionally, History is a subject that I delve into. If you have any comments and questions, you can email me at truthseeker2436577@yahoo.com. I'm usually very apt to respond to emails easily. This is a non-censorship blog so your comments will never be censored here.